


Meeting the parents

by qwertysweetea



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Asexual Kevin Price, First Dates, Fluff, Gen, In-Laws, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Minor Elder "Connor" McKinley/Kevin Price, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Religious Discussion, supportive parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwertysweetea/pseuds/qwertysweetea
Summary: Price meets McKinley's parents for the first time and is taken off-guard.Headcanon:McKinley has super loving and supportive parents and a mum who likes to play matchmaker.





	Meeting the parents

**Author's Note:**

> This was an unfinished drabble sat in my 'in progress' folder for way over a year. Then I got to see the musical again a few days ago and well, I guess it's not an unfinished drabble anymore!

"Hello, Mrs. McKinley. I'm Kevin Price."

Mrs. McKinley met him with wide eyes and a wider smile.

When Connor had invited him around for afternoon tea he had gladly taken up to opportunity. They had been back in the States from a little over a month, and despite everything, contact had been thin on the ground between most of them while they took their time to become reacquainted with their old ways of living.

Kevin had been grateful for the adjustment period, but not nearly as grateful as he was to get back in contact with the men he had shared two years of his life with.

Connor had spoken little of his parents while he had been away. Occasionally they had shared stories a little past curfew when they were struggling to sleep and a little homesick. He had told Kevin about their family trips to Europe and the pet dog he had as a child. Beyond that ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ had remain figures shroud in mystery.

He supposed that his had as well; the more he thought about sharing them with Connor the more homesick he became. Somewhere hanging in the air between them he knew that to be true of the other Elder too.

Now they were home, and the mysteries were left behind in the small mission hut they had called their home.

“Well of course you are!” The woman, short and plump with a tenderly aged face, exclaimed. Her thick southern accent was only heightened by her level of excitement. “Why don’t you come on in, Elder, and we’ll get you a nice, cold glass of water. I don’t know about you, but since our Connor’s been back it’s just one glass after another, right out of the chiller.”

Whatever subtle fretting Connor had been doing while they waited for Kevin to arrive seemed long forgotten as she took in the young man in front of her. She stepped out of the way, welcoming him in.

The house wasn’t big but it was open and airy; the entrance corridor looked pristine and smelt faintly of fresh linen. Pictures lined the walls. Evidently, she took a great deal of pride in her home.

“Just leave your shoes in the mud room and make your way on in to the living room darlin’. Connor’s just helping his dad put out the chickens and he’ll be right in.”

Kevin slipped off his shoes, eyes drawing back to the pictures on the walls as he did so. He drew himself away from looking to close when he realised that Mrs. McKinley was closing in behind him.

“That’s us at Connor’s baptism.” She nodded over his shoulder to the closest one, smile all the brighter. “He was so excited he almost danced his way to the pool. And this is us three years later in London, England. We went over to visit a sister church. But here’s me, talking away and you must be parched!”

She made her way down the corridor and out of sight.

Not since his first few days in Uganda had Kevin felt so out of his depth; he had always been good at pushing forward this air of confidence and charm but very rarely had he had it reflected back on him, especially with such genuine enthusiasm.

When Connor had warned him that his parents could be intense, he assumed it would be more in the traditional, prim-and-proper sense. Nothing about who he knew Connor to have been during the cohabitation gave any indication that his parents had been anything else; now he was caught off-guard, desperately trying to gather together any charm he could find to make a good impression.

He waited patiently in the living room, stood awkwardly, feeling out of place amongst the cream-coloured walls and the soft floral furniture. He fumbled with the flowers in his arms, realising with embarrassment that he had failed to hand them to her at the door.

Mrs. McKinley insisted that they didn't stand on ceremony in their home. Still, he waited for her to come back with a tray of drinking hand before he took a seat.

Barely had he touched it before he found himself jumping up again to take Mr. McKinley's hand in a shake which seemed to impress the other as much as it impressed every good Mormon man he met before him. If there was one thing he had always been able to count on, it was his strong handshake.

"Elder Price." Connor smiled, emerging through the living room door, taking the waiting glass of water.

.

"So Kevin, do you have a girlfriend?"

It had been less than ten minutes and he hadn’t found the conversation to be particularly lacking, they had talked of their work in Uganda briefly and his own family, but, as Kevin remarked privately to himself: mothers will be mothers.

Connor was sat beside him, attempting not to choke on his own embarrassment.

"Umm, no. I do not." He smiled back, trying hard to push back the part of him which cried to compete with her smile. That same part of him instinctively knew that he would not win against Mrs. McKinley's natural energy.

"Ooh..." She squeaked, eyes darting over to Connor.

Kevin avoided looked at Connor, if only because he knew from the years they had spent together under the sweltering African sun just how easy he was to fluster and how hard he found it to recover. It had been funny then, to watch him tie himself in knots and take hours of bumbling around to finally return to a fully functioning being. Kevin didn’t think he had it in him to do it now, not when he knew it would be so cruel.

The pause stretched out while all collected sipped at their drinks.

"Are you umm... homosexual?"

"Mum." Connor warned, somewhat under his breath.

"It's a perfectly reasonable question that I'm sure Mr. Price wouldn't mind answering, Connor." She continued smiling, her round face unable to look imposing even if she had tried to. She spoke out of honest interest that wasn’t entirely her own, and she wanted it to be known as clearly as every mother trying to play matchmaker.

“I suppose you could consider me a homosexual of sorts. More of a romantic, than anything else.”

At that Mrs. McKinley let out another squeak, giving Connor a far less subtle look. “Connor doesn’t bring home many nice Mormon men.”

.

“I’m...” Connor had started once he’d escorted Kevin to the front porch, closing the door behind them for the first bit of privacy they had gotten that afternoon. "...I'm so-"

“Please…” Kevin cut in “…don’t apologise. They’re wonderful people.” He meant it.

“They are.” He replied, sounding a little listless and unconvinced. “They’re trying but some things are hard to let go off, y’know? Marriage, kids, that big Mormon family.”

“They want to see you settled down, happy, regardless of who it is with. That’s something special Connor.”

“I know it is just… around you.” He smiled back, and for the first time Kevin saw how much of his manner was his mothers. Something about the way the corners of Connor’s lips tugged and tucked in.

Kevin smiled back, big and bright, a chuckle in his throat. “I would be proud to have them as in-laws.”

“Try spending more than an hour with them.” There was something of a challenge in that which hadn’t escaped Kevin’s notice; it was subtle enough to go over his head and jovial enough to be laughed off, just as Connor had intended it to be, but it was definitely there.

After an hour surrounded by hospitality so gracious it left him feeling as uncompelling as it made him feel loved, he wasn’t about to let Connor off the hook. He reclaimed the step he’d left, evening up their heights so he could look the older boy square in the eyes. “I’m free Saturday after next. If you don’t think your mum would have found you a husband by then, that is.”


End file.
